Moby Dick's Tales: Practice Makes Perfect
by Freefan1412
Summary: Slight AU. There are a lot of things Luffy needs to learn before his brothers feel comfortable leaving him out of their sight. Of course, it's not that easy.


To clear things up, what The Group tended to do could not really be called _pranks_.

Pranks were harmless little things that made people laugh, occasionally (frequently) humiliated some more and or were acted out with varying degrees of pre-planning.

What those four pulled whenever they were left alone together for more than five minutes was by definition not any of those things. The humiliation and laughing parts were there, sure, but they were much more of a side effect than the actual aim.

Like, for instance, _now._

The Moby Dick, being a giant ship, had an entire squad of navigators to man the helm at any given time and to study the weather in any given direction to assure a smooth and save journey.

The big ship tilted to the side, barrels rolling over the deck, crew members jumping out of the way, falling over their feet, getting run over, the people on look-out almost falling down, the cooks down in the kitchen stumbling, impaling knives only hair's breath away from any skin, dropping food, hungover throwing up.

The navigators, all on-shift-five of them, were screaming against a door while mad and delighted cackling came from the other side of the supply closet.

"Let us out of here you little brats!"

" _Don't wanna!"_ Called a voice back through the wood.

"I'm going to slaughter you in your sleep-"

" _-that ain't encouragin'!"_

"- and then eat five times a day on your grave-"

" _NO!"_ Was wailed pathetically and there was the sound of stomping feet before a crash and one of the culprits explaining to the gullible one how they were bluffing.

"-which you can watch if you don't let us out of here right now!"

" _No!"_ That one was more of a stubborn exclamation (underlined with the typical irritation at messing with Luffy's head). There was a loud smack of a palm against wood and the navigators cowed back from the door in reflex. _"Shut up in there! Just wait and watch.!_ " Never mind that from inside a closet there wasn't much to see besides little holes (possibly from vermin, possibly from bullets, possibly from fingers) that needed to be fixed.

Still, in an expert feat of team work, the navigators all let their shoulders slump, and leaned against various bits they could find. "Can't say we haven't tried," said one of the women, Betty, in a kind of voice that was very much not full of the previous irritation, utterly relaxed. "How long 'd you say?"

Somebody snorted. "I give them fifteen minutes."

"Ten."

"Five."

"Half an hour." Lack of light there might be, all heads still turned towards the speaker, who might not see the looks but felt them drilling in the back of his head enough. "He's got back up," elaborated Frank, face planted to the door and peeking through a hole. "Looks like Sabo was not the only one of the three of them able to read a Log Pose. Ace is doing that now."

There was a brief pause before bodies squeezed and pushed to get eyes to similar places.

The sight that greeted five lone eyes was not exactly one for faint hearts.

:::::::::::::::::

"No Luffy, not like that. You got to keep in mind that the ship is gigantic and that the wheel you are holding- actually, never mind...just...keep trying," explained Thatch to Luffy's blank expression.

Luffy chirped, happily spinning the helm from one end to the other. The ship lurched under their feet. Luffy beamed. Sabo grinned. Ace smirked. Thatch snorted as he watched Marco down on deck get rolled over by a barrel.

:::::::::::::::::

"What the hell is happening?!" Shouted Haruta, dodging a barrel that almost flattened her and then jumping after it to hold it on the right side of the railing.

Marco peeled his head from the planks, face furious. "I have a good idea." Wasting no time, Marco dodged chaotic crewmates, glowered at those laughing their heads off in passing (remembering the faces for later chores), and threw open the door to Navigation. "WHAT-"

A fruit smashed him in the face. It slipped down and landed with a wet splash on his feet. Juice dripped down Marco's face.

Ace still had his arm extended. "...er...oops?" He tried meekly. There was a mountain of fruits in a barrel next to him, waiting for use.

Sabo and Thatch turned away from where they had been fruitlessly trying to give Luffy instructions on how to steer a boat, catching sight of Marco standing in the doorway. They paled.

"Er...this isn't what it looks like." Thatch tried, quickly backing away until his back stood against the giant window overseeing the deck. (Luffy protested, "I can't see Thatch!")

Marco swiped some liquid from his face before it could run into his eyes, _perfectly calm_. "So you _didn't_ take over the ship and defended your position by _throwing fruits_ at whoever tried to come stop you?"

"Ah, no," Thatch admitted grinning weakly. "That's erm...exactly right."

"We had no choice!" Sabo threw in, very righteously even though he very obviously got that Marco was _not in a good mood._ "If Luffy wants ta go sailing on his own, he gotta learn how ta steer!"

Ace and Thatch nodded vigorously. The young boy in question just spun the helm so fast it was blurring, pouting because Thatch was standing in his way of looking outside (not that looking made Luffy any less horrible). The ship tilted to the other side.

Everyone and everything that didn't have hands to hold on to something was tossed around like a leaf in the wind. It just so happened that the barrel with over ripe fruits didn't have hands. It also just so happened that Marco stood in its way to liberty.

One crash and lots of splattering later, the first division commander picked himself up, all over sticky. "That's _IT._ "

Luffy took a moment to actually notice Marco. "You're all covered in fruits, Marco! Are you pretending to be pineapple? Now you smell like one too! But no wait. I know! You're making friends with other pineapples! Promise I can still eat them even when they're your friends?"

Three of the evildoers _eeped_. And bolted. The fourth was jerked away from his attempt at steering in favour of being pulled out the other door, running and laughing wildly.

* * *

Long time no see. This is yet another fic based in the Moby Dick's Tales Series.

This fic was prompted by **Lady of the Shards** forever ago and I finally managed to complete it. I had the first part done for a long time, but I just couldn't find something to round it out with and I didn't want to publish it half way, so it has been gathering dust for years. Now that it's done, I can only say: FINALLY. I've got a lot half planned and half finished Tales laying around and one less on the list waiting to be complete already makes it so much easier to look at.

Hope you enjoyed the first Moby Dick's Tales in a long time.


End file.
